Daily Times

The world is set to embrace a new president at the White House in Washington, DC as the polling results of the U.S presidential election makes headlines across the world. The race to white house has been marred by scandals, vicious political attacks on the competing opponents and accusations of fraud. But, as the democratic led Former U.S president, Joe Biden and republican candidate, US president, Donald Trump are locked in a tight race as unaccounted votes remain, the question is, what made the process so extensive and complex?

The Americans may have already been exhausted by the length of the presidential race as technically 2020 race witnessed nearly 1,200 days of campaign process till the November 3rd, election day, since the first Democrat former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, declared his candidacy on July 28, 2017. Donald Trump began his reelection campaign unusually early for an incumbent president. He began spending his reelection effort within weeks of his election and officially filed his campaign with the Federal Election Commission on the day of his inauguration. Trump, held massive rallies and fundraisers for this campaign since February 2017, but formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign on June 19, 2020 in front of a large crowd in Orlando, Florida. Meanwhile, Joe Biden began his election campaign on April 25, 2019, via video announcing his candidacy in the 2020 Democratic party presidential primaries.

The lengthy campaign season may offer voters ample time to learn about the candidates and make an educated choice. But voter turnout in the US has always remained abysmal compared to much of the world, and this could be linked, in part, to the fatigue induced by long elections. In contrast, in the neighboring Canada, the minimum length for a campaign is 36 days, but the longest ever was 74 days in 1926. In France, the presidential campaigning prior to the first round of voting can last no longer than two weeks, where as in the UK, campaigning tends to last between five to six weeks.

Notoriously, the U.S presidential election is also the most expensive process to run for the country’s top office, as both Democrats and Republicans amass their financial muscle to defeat each other. According to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.org, In 2016, the total spending in the on the elections collectively amounted to $6.5 billion for the presidential and congressional elections, with $2.4 billion spent on the presidential contest alone. But, according to the projections of Center for Responsive Politics, blowing the past record, the 2020 US election has become the most expensive campaign in American history, with the final tally for the battle for the White House and control of the Senate and the House expected to hit a whopping $14 billion mark.

Being extensive and expensive may have its repercussions on the entire race, however, the Electoral College (EC) makes the entire process most complex and arduous. Although the United States is thought to be a leader of democracy, there are many exceptions to the basic idea of “one person, one vote.” One of the most famous exceptions is the Electoral College, the process by which the U.S. elects its President and Vice President. The Electoral College (EC) is the group of people that elect the United States President and Vice President. When Americans go to the polls, they’re not directly voting for the candidates, but for ‘electors’.In 1787, the Founding Fathers of the US created it as an alternative to the popular vote. In part to ensure smaller states had a say, but also to appease southern slaveholding states who wanted their population size to be reflected, even though many of those people (slaves) couldn’t vote.

Therefore, each of the 50 U.S. states has a number of electoral votes, which is based on the number of its Representatives and Senators in the U.S. Congress. As there are 100 Senators and 435 Representatives in the House, plus three electoral votes for Washington, D.C. , a total of 538 electoral votes make up the Electoral College. Winning 270 or more Electoral College votes is required to become president.

Over the years, the Electoral College has become increasingly scandalous as at times, a candidate running for the presidency may lose the race even if he/she wins the popular vote. The incidents of a popular vote not being the decisive measure of victory has occurred five times in the country’ s history. More recently, in the 2016 election Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232 – but Clinton amassed 65.9 million votes compared to Trump’s 63 million. But, because Trump bagged more votes by a small margin in a few key swing states, like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and gained the electoral votes in these states, despite Clinton having more national votes overall. Similar situation occurred, in 2000 when a democratic candidate Al Gore won 544,000 more votes than George W Bush, but Bush won by 271 electoral votes to 266 (one elector didn’t cast a vote).

Adding fuel to the fire, apart from being conventionally enigmatic Election process, 2020 race has become further complicated. This year, coronavirus pandemic means more people than ever are voting early, either by post or in person. Since, postal votes quintessentially take longer to count as they have to go through more steps to be verified, such as a signature and address check, the election results have been delayed by days. Causing further delays, about half of states will accept postal ballots that arrive after election day, as long as they are postmarked by 3 November, so some votes won’t be counted until days after the election, which raised provisional ballots – votes cast by people who requested a postal ballot but decided to vote in person instead.

The U.S 2020 presidential election has not just become the most closely contested election, but also most complex race in the country’s history, raising concerns from the Biden and Trump campaigns. Donald Trump had already threatened to sue his way to re-election, and had promised to bring the election to the Supreme Court, and accused his democratic rival Biden’s campaign of fraud. The only thing at this stage, what American’s can’t afford, is a Trump melt down and his recalcitrant behavior at the most crucial stage of their history.